“Since when did we start brewing coffee? Coffee was meant to be made instantly.”
Kim Bong-jin, the former chairman of Woowa Brothers and founder of Baedal Minjok (Baemin), is introducing “Newmix Coffee” as his first business venture since leaving the company.
According to the distribution industry on March 7, Newmix Coffee will have a soft opening this weekend on March 9 and 10 near Yeonmujang-gil 3-gil in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, followed by its grand opening on March 14.
The new venture comes over five months after Kim announced in September last year that he had established a new corporation called “Grande Clip.”
Located in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Grande Clip is introduced as a company with the motto “make the trivial great,” aiming to find value in the mundane and ordinary, similar to a paperclip. It is known that a significant number of its founding members previously collaborated at Woowa Brothers.
Newmix Coffee, its first venture, is a reinterpretation of instant coffee mix. Customers can enjoy instant coffee in the café or purchase it to take away.
The company ventured into coffee mix because it is considered the most Korean beverage, embodying the soul of Koreans. “Just as Italy has its espresso and the United States has its Americano, Korea has its instant coffee,” the company said. “Originally, coffee wasn’t meant to be brewed but made instantly.”
It recalls the scene from a Baemin advertisement where actor Ryu Seung-ryong, shouting “What kind of people are we?” rides a horse while holding a metal delivery box.
Ahead of the launch of this new business, Kim, along with Hyundai Card vice chairman and CEO Chung Tae-young, garnered attention in January by visiting places like the London Bagel Museum and Artist Bakery around Anguk Station in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Kim is credited with transforming the domestic dining industry into a platform with the launch of the Baemin app in 2010.
Following his graduation from the Seoul Institute of the Arts with a degree in Interior Design, he worked as a web designer at companies such as Emotion Global, Neowiz, and NHN (now Naver). After establishing his enterprise, he referred to himself as a “designer who manages” and gained popularity among the younger generation by presenting advertisements with a B-grade sentiment.
In 2019, after becoming the No. 1 delivery app in South Korea, he sold the company to Germany’s Delivery Hero (DH) for $4 billion (about 4.8 trillion won). In 2022, he registered as the 219th donor to the global donation club, The Giving Pledge, committing to donate more than half of his wealth.
Kim, who remained on the board of directors of Woowa Brothers Corp even after the sale left the company last year, 13 years after the company was launched. At that time, he said he wanted to return to being a real designer rather than a “designer who is involved in management.” He also added that he wanted to create “several small and medium-sized businesses rather than a big business like Baemin”.
Newmix Coffee was said to be fueled while he helped one of his junior colleagues who was interested in the business.
An industry official around Kim said, “He launched Newmix Coffee by branding the existing instant coffee mix sector, as there has been a lot of interest in Korean mixed coffee overseas,” adding, “The reason for opening the cafe in Seongsu-dong is to popularize instant coffee in places where many foreigners visit.”
Many in the retail industry show a keen interest in whether his business acumen at Baemin will be again shown in the coffee business.
South Korea’s coffee market reached 8.6 trillion won ($6.47 billion) last year, making the country the world’s second-largest coffee consumer. However, the market for bottled or instant coffee is shrinking.
According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT), the combined share of bottled and instant coffee in the country’s total coffee market fell from 41% in 2018 to 30% in 2021, compared to a 7% increase in the total coffee market size over the same period.
While there is growing global interest in South Korea’s mixed coffee, growth is lagging because Dongsuh Foods Corp’s “Maxim coffee mix,” which accounts for 80% of the domestic instant coffee mix market, is not exported. The coffee brand “Maxim” is owned by General Foods in the U.S., and Dongsuh Foods Corp cannot sell the product overseas at will.
Relative newcomers such as Namyang Corp and Ediya Coffee Company are pushing for overseas expansion, but it is still at an insignificant level. That’s why many are expecting that marketing sense combined Newmix Coffee will be able to grow the instant coffee market.
Newmix Coffee has found the golden ratio of coffee, sugar, and creamer, eliminating dry taste and creating a subtle sweetness. An industry player who sneak-peeked Newmix Coffee said, “It feels more luxurious than the existing products in terms of design and taste.”
In addition to Newmix Coffee, Kim is reportedly promoting new businesses such as online services at the same time. Grande Clip, one of his new businesses, previously hired digital product designers and is currently looking for designers to develop children’s paper toy products.
